Process for making ribbed expanded-metal structures.



I H. E. WHITE. PROCESS FOR MAKING RIBBED EXPANDED METAL STRUCTURES.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 14. 1913.

1,145,342.. Patented July 6, 1915.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

lwueutoi HERBERT EWHITE.

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H. E. WHITE. PROCESS FOR MAKING RIBBED EXPANDED METAL STRUCTURES. APPLICATION FILED JUNE 14, 1913. I

1,145,342. I I Patented July 6, 1915.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HERBERT E. WHITE, OF YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE GENERAL FIRE- PROOFIN G COMPANY, OF YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

PROCESS FOR MAKING RIBBED EXPANDED-METAL STRUCTURES.

- Patented July 6, 1915.

Application filed June 14, 1e13,. I Serial No. 773,650.

To all whom it may concern:

' Be it known that I, HERBERT E. WHITE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Youngstown, in the county of Mahoning and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Processes for Making Ribbed Expanded-Metal Structures, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to a novel and practical process .for making ribbed ex- Y panded sheet metal products, and the object is to provide a process that may be successfully and commercially employed to slit and expand inside areas of a metal sheet, as distinguished from processes wherein the slitting and expanding is worked from an external edge of the blank inwardly, and also to develop and produce relatively deep grooves between the slitted and expanded portions, making the formation of said grooves an instrumentality in the operation of straightening the slitted and expanded portions into final position.

A general object of the invention is to obviate the difliculties experienced in expanding the slitted portions between the ribs of ribbed sheet metal products by first expanding the slitted portion, and making provision for the increased area of the expanded section by causing the slitted portion to move to one side of the plane of the original sheet, while it is undergoing the act of being expanded, so. that'the expansion of the slitted material is effected without any movement of the uncut area from which the ribs are to be formed. And, thereafter,-

subjecting the sheet to an operation thatchannels the unslitted areas with relatively deep grooves which produce stifiening ribs for the structure. quent channeling or grooving step is'to exert a lateral draw upon the previously expanded portions with the result of partly spreading the latter by moving the same toward the plane of the original sheet. Then, as a final operation, the completed ribs are laterally spread or separated to a greater distance apart in order to complete the spreading of the previously expanded portions by moving the latter into the fiat plane of the sheet. In this connection, it will be observed that two operations are involved to. bring the previously slit and expanded portions into a flat plane, namely The effect of this subse that of grooving the .unslit areas to produce the ribs, and the final step of laterally widening the distance between the ribs,-

employed which are "available, or can be adapted, for the purpose, so forillustrative purposes there are only shown in the draw ings, diagrammatically, such views as may be necessary for a full understanding of the manipulation of the metal sheet to develop and produce, in a rapid and economical manner, the expanded metal structure.

In these. drawings Figure 1 is a plan view of the metal sheet as afi'ect d by the first step of the process, namely i and expanding inside areas between at least two unslitted areas. Fig. 2 is a cross sectional view on the line 22 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view'on the line 33 of Fig. l to. show, in side elevation, the expanded area as produced by the first step of the process. Figs. 4, 5 and 6 are diagrammatic views of the metal sheet illustrative of the successive operations which are performed to bring the slitted and expanded areas into substantially the plane of the original sheet. Fig. 7 is a diagrammatic plan View of a type of combined grooving and spreading machine that may be utilized for the final step of the process.

Like reference characters designate corhat of slitting stage in the manipulation of the metal sheet is to subject the same to an operation which produces in the sheet separate lines of lnterrupted longitudinal slits 1, which are ar' ranged alternately in adjacent lines, and simultaneously displacing or offsetting to one side of the-plane of the original sheet the individual strands or ribbons of metal formed. between the slits. Also in this combined slitting and expanding operation, 'a desirable feature may be the elongating or stretching of the strands of metal between the slits, effected, for instance, by'the means suggested in my aforesaid patent, but irrespective of the stretching of the strands, the slitting and expanding step acts to displace all of the meshed web to one side of the sheet, the same taking the form of a V- shaped trough-like arch a, as best seen in Fig. 2 of the drawings.

\Vhen the combine slitting, expanding and deforming step is completed, represented by the, diagrammatic view of-Fig. 4 of the drawings, the next step of the process is to subject the metal sheet to a channeling or grooving operation that channels the blank unslitted areas I) with relatively deep grooves which produce stiffening ribs 7" between the expanded portions a. This ribforming operation may be performed in any suitable-manner and by any suitable instrumentalities, such for instance as by the means shown in my former Patent No. 1,056,871, dated March 25, 1913, but for illustrative purposes, there is suggested in Fig. 7 of the drawings a means that may be resorted to for not only the step of grooving the unslitted portions of the sheet to produce the ribs, but also for performing the operation of laterally separating the completed ribs to bring the expanded portions to the final position within substantially the plane of the sheet. This type of grooving and spreading machine that may be'em-' ployed consists of any required number of graduated grooving units, each of which units includes successively arranged sets of upper and lower complemental die rolls 3-3 as indicated in Figs. 5 and 6, and suitable guides between the succeeding sets of rolls. This is plainly shown by Fig. 7 of the drawings, and it will be understood that the die rolls are arranged in parallel rows on parallel shafts, but necessarily are successively of a graduated construction to provide for progressively deepening and narrowing the grooves until the same reach the full depth to provide the finished ribs 1'. Beyond the point where the ribs have been completely formed in the said grooving and spreading machine, the die rolls are of the same construction and size as the preceding sets of rolls, but are divergently arranged, as indicated in Fig. 7 in order to provide a means for drawing apart or separating the ribs to the necessary extent for bringing the expanded portions into their final plane, that is, into substantially the plane of the sheet.

The foregoing operations are made plain by reference to the diagrams of Figs. 4, 5, and 6 of the drawings, wherein Fig. 4: illus trates the metal shape as produced by the first step of the process, that is, having the slitted and expanded portions displaced to one side of the plane of the sheet. Fig. 5 illustrates that stage of the process wherein the ribs 1' have been completely formed by the action of the grooving machine, and said view illustrates the feature of the rib-formation constituting an instrumentality to assist in the lateral spreading of the slitted and expanded portions, so that by the time the ribs have been completely formed, the said slitted and expanded portions have been partly spread laterally, that is moved partly toward the flat plane. And, in Fig. 6 of the drawings is illustrated the final step of the process, wherein the finished ribs are laterally spread apart to the required extent to bring the slitted and expanded portions into. the flat plane without expansion thereof. Also the said series of diagrams 4, 5 and 6 illustrate the feature of the process producing a final product of greater width than theoriginal blank.

From the foregoing, it is thought that the novel process steps will be readily apparent without further description, but it will be understood that any minor changes in the operations involved or in the means employed in connection therewith may be resorted to wherein the principle of the invention is retained. I

I claim: 7

The method of making expanded metal structures which consists in slitting, and stretching a longitudinal inside area of a metal sheet,.leaving an uncut area on both margins of the slitted area, andsimultaneously with the slitting operation, deforming the entire section of material betweenthe uncut areas into a trough form depressed to one side of the original plane of the sheet, thereby producing open meshes, then grooving the uncut areas to thereby produce finished ribs and to also thereby partly straighten the expanded troughed section, and subsequently moving the finished ribs laterally to thereby bring the partly straightened section into the flat plane.

In testimony whereof I hereunto ailix my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

HERBERT E. WHITE.

Witnesses:

H. R. GLENN, O. D. KAIsER. 

